Warren wins appeal over Christmas display

6:32 PM, February 25, 2013

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the move, concluded the U.S. Constitution “does not convert these displays into a seasonal public forum, requiring governments to add all comers to the mix and creating a poison pill for even the most secular displays in the process.” / Rashaun Rucker/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

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It’s not unconstitutional to have reindeer, snowmen and a nativity scene on display in the center of town, with no anti-religious slogan next to it.

That’s what a federal appeals court ruled today in finding that the city of Warren didn’t trample on anyone’s free speech rights when it refused to add a sign that attacked religion to its annual holiday display.

The sign, proposed by a Wisconsin-based group called Freedom From Religion Foundation, would have read: “There are no gods, no devils, no angels, No heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but Myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, who called the sign “highly offense” and “mean spirited,” wouldn’t stand for it. He told the group in a letter, disclosed in court documents, that he wouldn’t allow any displays to disparage any religion, “so I will not allow anyone or any organization to attack religion in general.”

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the move, concluding the U.S. Constitution “does not convert these displays into a seasonal public forum, requiring governments to add all comers to the mix and creating a poison pill for even the most secular displays in the process.” The court also upheld the constitutionality of Warren’s annual Christmas display, noting it features both secular and religious symbols alike.

“Such holiday displays are quintessentially government speech,” the panel wrote in a 3-0 vote, also stressing that it’s not illegal if an opposing view is kept out of a holiday display.

“If strict neutrality were the order of the day … the United States Postal Service would need to add all kinds of stamps, religious and nonreligious alike, to its December collection. Veterans’ Day would lead to pacifism Day, the Fourth of July to Non-patriots Day, and so on.”

Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the group will consider asking the full Sixth Circuit to review the case.

Fouts, meanwhile, is pleased, saying the decision is a “victory for freedom of religion.”